Distracted driving kills hundreds of people in California every year and far more across the nation. It has defied parental warnings, heart-rending public service announcements, federally funded projects and targeted state and local law enforcement.

Frustrated by the lack of progress, a senator is convening a summit in Washington this week to push technology that would discourage distracted driving and end finger-pointing by automakers, cell phone carriers, safety advocates and government regulators.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a five-term West Virginia Democrat, is counting on the mere threat of intervention by his Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation to persuade industries to speed deployment of devices that can divert incoming, nonemergency calls and disable nonemergency texting and calling from behind the wheel.

Of 33,561 traffic deaths nationwide in 2012, 3,328 were caused by distracted driving that included talking or texting, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Of 2.4 million people injured that year, 421,000 were in crashes involving distracted drivers.

In California, distracted driving was blamed for 139 deaths and 10,722 injuries in more than 17,000 crashes in 2012.

While many of the incidents are not categorized by type of distraction, cell phone usage was specifically cited in 647 of the crashes, and another 360 were attributed to drivers using electronic equipment. Other distractions included everything from children and pets to eating, smoking and reading.

An annual statewide "observational survey" of drivers in California showed that 7.4 percent were using cell phones at any given time, according to the state Office of Traffic Safety.

Convictions for hand-held cell phone infractions decreased 7.6 percent from 460,487 in 2011 to 425,041 in 2012, but texting convictions increased 42 percent over the same year - from 14,866 in 2011 to 21,059, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles.

"We have to do everything possible to raise awareness of the dangers of distracted driving and get every driver to break this habit that has devastating consequences for public health," Rockefeller said. "Far too many people have suffered because of someone looking away from the road to answer a call or respond to an e-mail or text."

Congressional staffers are hoping for greater cooperation between automakers that profit from built-in communications consoles and cell phone service providers that profit from greater connectivity.

Officials are putting some of their hope in the TXTL8R mobile app, which is being offered for free this year to teenage drivers in Iowa. The technology disables text and phone capabilities when a person is driving, except for emergency calls. It also sends a message to senders of incoming texts that the driver is unavailable and will respond later.

Catherine McCullough, executive director of the Intelligent Car Coalition, a tech-industry organization, wrote recently that "it may make sense for all transportation stakeholders ... to gather in a neutral venue and collaboratively engage on issues around the safety implications of new technologies."

Thursday's summit, and the anti-distracted-driving campaign, are among the final Capitol projects for Rockefeller, who will retire after his term expires next January.

"It's time for people to focus on the road and give up distracted driving for good," Rockefeller said.